Seize me From Darkness (Pierced Hearts Book 4) (5 page)

BOOK: Seize me From Darkness (Pierced Hearts Book 4)
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If only I’d not gone out for a drink that night. If only I’d
turned left for a taxi instead of going right down the alley to the car park and aiming to drive myself home. If only the assholes hadn’t decided to add me to their list of women to sell to other, richer assholes.

If only one of those rich assholes
hadn’t decided I’d make a nice victim for his sadistic pleasures.

T
he weight of the sheet was stinging the skin on my bottom. I inched it off me, wincing when it tore loose in a few spots. I must have bled. Nothing I could do about it. I covered my head with my poor ravaged pillow. Slowly the deeper darkness let me fall into sleep.

At t
he tap of footsteps, I jerked awake. Pain blazed across my back and I yelped.

Someone sat on the edge of the bed
, bowing it down, and a large hand was laid across my spine.

“Oh dear. What bruises you have. My, my. I’m so sorry it came to this but your Mr. Pieter did not do as he was told to.”

Gregor.
I gulped. My head was still under the pillow. I felt like a turtle hiding from a crocodile.

“Come out, come out.” He chuckled and pulled the pillow from my grasp. “There you are
! I have something for you. Ointment. It will be good for your wounds. Stay very still.”

I
barely glanced at him before staring at the wall beyond the headboard. I heard a jar being unscrewed and he shifted on the bed, rocking the mattress.

A
s he touched a finger to my back, the cold of the ointment and the burn of pain made me wince and try to fly up off the bed. His hand anchored me in place.

“Stay. I said to stay. You don’t want me to spank you now
, do you?”

I gritted my teeth, wishing I could do something
bad to this man. Eyes closed, I made myself be still as he traced every welt with his fingers, rubbing in the cream with agonizing thoroughness.

I
f I had a gun under my hand, would I have the guts to shoot him? He so scared me that I knew I might not dare to try. If I failed, he’d do terrible things to me.

“Why are you shaking? Does
it hurt that much? Such pretty, pretty bruises. If only you could see them like I do.”

I shuddered. Light as the walk of a spider
, Gregor’s fingers trailed over my ass, venturing close to the divide, then he took a pinch of skin directly over one of the worst spots.

I hissed and tried to claw my way up the bed. Without releasing my skin,
he fastened me down with his palm planted on the small of my back.

“It hurts.
Let go. Please.” I whispered my plea. “Please.”

“No, no, no.”
He waited until I was staying in place, though gasping and crushing the pillow with my hands. “Now. What did you forget to add to the end of your sentences? Hmm?”

Oh fuck.

“You didn’t say ‘sir’. Yes? I was very lenient, considering your condition. But now I have to punish you. Be good or I will do it twice.”

Punish? Not more of the stick?

But he shifted to the end of the bed and dragged me by my legs until I was over his knee with my dress gathered above my waist. I buried my head. I was whining as the first blow struck, crying out by the fourth. If he’d taken a hammer to me, it might have hurt less.

“There now. All done.”

I panted, determined not to make more noises. He probably enjoyed them.

The door opened. From the sounds, several people came in.

I turned my head away, embarrassed as well as sore. Tears streamed down my face and I wiped them away with my wrist.

“It’s your friend, Pieter!
Hop off my lap now, dear girl, and say hello to your present.”

Present?

God, I hated how cheerful, how condescending, this man acted. Like a demon babysitter risen up from the depths of Hell.

He’d said Pieter.
I struggled off Gregor’s lap then pulled down my dress. Sitting on the bed only made me flinch. I stood and pretended nothing had happened. That I hadn’t been spanked and presenting my naked butt to these men when they came through the door.

How many of them had seen what had happened in the other room? Did it matter? They were dirt.
Despise them. These men are all pieces of crap. I’m better than them all.
I tried my best to look them in the eyes but I couldn’t.

Two guards and Pieter with his head covered.

My muscles tensed.

I
n front of me was the man I’d been raped by last night. Even if he’d been made to do it...it bothered me. Why had they brought him to me?

They had him wrapped up in chains and leather
and handcuffs. Gray shirt. Gray pants. His arm muscles bulged around the straps like he might explode them any minute.

He was big. I’d forgotten how big.
He’d been behind me, last night, in the room.

My mind skittered away from even thinking the words for what he’d done.

They were releasing him, all but his handcuffs, and backing out the door.

“You can have him for three hours today. Your client,
Miss Jazmine, has asked us to let you two interact.” Gregor shook his finger at us both. “Do not have sex. That is a rule.” As he spoke he went to Pieter and took the bag off his head. Then he went to the door. “I’m leaving you now. Back up to the door hatch so we can take off the cuffs, Pieter. Each time you leave this room, you will do the same procedure. Understand me?”

They were leaving us together. Alone. And it sounded as if they meant to do this regularly.

The door was closed and locked.

I studied Pieter as he did what he’d been told to do
and backed up to have the cuffs removed through the hatch.

No sex. Thank god for that. I didn’t know this man, at all. How many times had we spoken alone back in Australia before he’d helped me escape? Four times? I
’d never been sure of his reasons for helping me.

If any man could be said to be
lion-like, it was Pieter. His head was as substantial as his muscles and his untidy and ragged mop of shoulder-length black hair could’ve been mistaken for a small runaway pet. The gray streaks might mean age, or that he’d suffered extreme stress. Older than me, anyway.

The one fact he’d told me that seemed to tee up – h
e’d soldiered in South Africa. But on which side of the law?

Trusting him was the last thing I should do.
Everyone had hidden agendas – lawyers, neighbors, boyfriends, everyone. He was simply a better risk than being Gregor’s toy.

He looked at me from under his brows while massaging his wrists then
he surveyed the room. All without moving from where he stood near the door.

My heart decided to go on high alert and pound away. Beads of sweat popped up on my forehead. Today was going to be hot, but this wasn’t the heat. Pieter made me nervous. I s
hifted on my feet, shrugged. How did I greet a man who’d done what he’d done to me?

I cleared my throat. “I’d offer you tea and scones but...”

“You okay?”

To the point. Was I? Hell no. Stupidly, tears stung my eyes. I blinked them away, stared at my fascinating floor. “I’m, yeah, okay.”

“You’re not. Dumb question. Come. If you can stand me. Come.” He beckoned me to him.

What?
I was baffled.

He looked down. Shook his head. “I know you must be going in circles. Things like this mess with your mind. This is my territory. I’ve seen enough in my life to make this a walk in the park. But you...” He looked at me again from under those thick
, gorgeous eyebrows that I was crazy to be admiring. “You need a
fokken
hug.”

“Uh. No.”
I tried to back away and my knees hit the bed.

“No?” His gaze was so searching he probably knew
the color of my panties. Wait. I had none on.

I couldn’t sit. I wasn’t going to lie down with him here. My legs started to tremble and I put a hand out to the headboard and missed.
Shit.

His sigh was loud enough to make me frown.

“What?” I had to get him out of my face. “Do you think you could lie on the floor, because I... I don’t have a chair.” And I needed to lie down fast before I fell over.

“What did he do to you? Just now? Did he do something?”

I felt the heat as my face reddened then cold rushed in and prickled down my body. I swayed. “He, umm, hit me, yes.” I hurried on. If I fainted, I’d never forgive myself. It seemed ridiculous to be embarrassed before Pieter, but I couldn’t help it. “It was nothing.”

Go fucking lie down.

That assessing stare of his was going to wear out the room atmosphere.

“You
poepol
,” he muttered and he walked toward me.

“What does that mean? What are you doing?”

“Means idiot.” Then he opened his arms and slowly, while watching me, as if to see if I was going to punch him or something, he half-closed his arms around me, stopping just short of touching.

I
froze. The scent of this man so near...he smelled good. Warm. Intense. It signaled humanity to me.

I should not trust him. He’d been with them, worked
for
them. I hadn’t even liked touching my assorted boyfriends, some days. Touching wound me up like a spring.

My eyes, traitorous things, watered and I felt
more tears well and trickle down my cheeks. I sniffed. Fuck him.

“Come. You need this,
bokkie
.”


Bokkie
?” I wiped at the tears. Another stupid foreign word.

“Little
doe,” he whispered. “It’s an endearment in Afrikaans. “Please. You’ll make me happy too. I need a hug.”


Little doe?” I giggled. “You need a hug?”

I frown-cried. More fucking tears.

I hung my head and wiped my palms up my face, speaking past my fingers. “This is all so stupid.”

I shouldn’t.
It’d give him the wrong idea, that I liked touching.

But
I took a small, shuffling step and I fell into his embrace. Without saying another word, he delicately closed his arms on me, as if I might break. I slipped my own around his broad back and I sobbed for ages, wetting his shirt. He rubbed between my shoulders. High enough, I realized, to miss where Gregor had hurt me. He remembered. And he was right. I needed this. Needed someone to hug.

If he was faking all this caring shit, he was doing it
so bloody well.

 

 

Chapter
6

 

When she was done with most of the crying, and her legs seemed ready to give way, I picked Jazmine up to put her on the bed. Her small protests, I ignored.

“I’m not a child.” She wriggled as I lowered her then she glared
up at me.

“Shush.” I put a finger to my lips. “You know you need to do this. I bet you got no sleep last night. Hmm?” I looked about
, shrugged. “And like you said, no chair.”

Her laugh was dismissive. She propped herself up on her elbow. “
It feels wrong lying down when you’re...” She nodded at where I stood.


Ja
. Well there’s only the bed.” I thought about joining her. I was tired too.

Despite
my comment about this being a walk in the park for me, it wasn’t. I’d slept very little. I’d never had a woman in this sort of traumatic situation to worry about before. Never been a prisoner. I was used to acting, to fixing things by violence or by negotiation. The more things got planned ahead, the better too, with multiple contingency plans for when things went wrong.

I had a ton of
kak
to dig up before I could plan ahead here. For starters, why her? Was there a rhyme or reason for this? Or was it random?

BOOK: Seize me From Darkness (Pierced Hearts Book 4)
3.54Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
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